Ethan
by Jennis524
Summary: CHAPTER SEVEN UP! A new 3rd year med student shakes up life in the ER with a revelation of who his father is.
1. A new beginning

Title: Ethan

Author: Jen Zoromski AKA Jennis524

Summary: A new 3rd year med student shakes up life in the ER with a revelation about who his father is.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from ER except for the ones that you don't recognize.

Author's Note: I found this story hidden away in a notebook I must have written it not long after the airing of "Freefall" last year. Well it's a different twist on life in the ER through the eyes of a new 3rd year med student. Enjoy!

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_February 9, 2004_

_County General Hospital_

"Hey Dr. Lewis, we've got some newbies over there," Jerry shouts as she rushes past him.

"Have Pratt take them," Susan Lewis replies trying not to lose her lunch for the second time today. A quick glance over at yet another group of 3rd year med students ready for their ER rotation yields two guys and two girls – nothing too unusual.

A red head with a fierce gaze and dark grey eyes follows every move of hers. This kid's more observant than the others who have already plopped down into chairs, realizing that they probably weren't going to see any action today.

Against her better judgment and protests of her queasy stomach, she approaches the med students.

"Are we actually going to see something today?" the red head asks with a mocking tone in his voice. It's a familiar tone – one that hasn't been heard in the ER for nearly three months.

"Not if that's how you address an attending," Susan replies ready to turn on her heal and leave.

"Mr. Cholesterol over there said that we were supposed to be assigned to a Dr. Lewis – would that be you?"

"I'm off."

"We've been here since nine this morning!"

"Welcome to the live of a 3rd year med student."

"Isn't it you job to teach us?" he challenges – his eyes gleaming. He knows what buttons to push – what words to use to make someone angry.

"I'm tired. My feet hurt. I feel like I'm going to throw up my lunch for the second time today – and I don't want to deal with smart assed med students."

The red head smirks and jots down her symptoms.

"How long has this nauseous feeling been happening?"

Susan laughs in spite of herself, "All Right, I'll give you a tour. But that's it – then I'm handing you off to Pratt."

The other three hop up and join in the tour of the ER with the red head smirking the entire time. He won – well for the first trial.

At the end of the tour Susan redirects them back to the spot where they were out of the way.

All except for the red head.

He stands next to admit trying to get a peek at a chart – anything.

"I'd suggest you go wait for Dr. Pratt with the other med students."

"I'd rather not," he grins, challenging her with his smile and the look in his eye.

"Maybe you should, Mr. ?"

The red head flashes her another bright smile, "Romano. Ethan Romano."

Shock covers her face – it was as if someone just slapped Susan.

"Dr. Lewis, you okay?"

"As in –"

"Dr. Robert Romano – I believe you knew my father."

TBC

xxxx

More to come! Please R&R

Jen


	2. Trauma

Title: Ch. 2: Trauma

Author: Jen Zoromski

All other information is in first chapter.

Enjoy!

XXXXX

_February 11, 2004_

_County General Hospital_

Gossip flies fast when a child of their former boss happens to turn up. By the next shift everyone knew. Ethan's no nonsense attitude and his uncanny resemblance to his father put them all on edge.

Late on the second day of his ER rotation a trauma rolls through the door. Vehicle vs. pedestrian.

"Ethan, you're with me on this one," Susan yells over her shoulder.

Ethan watches as a woman with a deep head laceration starts to vomit blood.

"Roll her!" Susan orders as the nurses move the woman.

"Mr. 'Hot-shot' here's your first trauma – care to join?"

His face turns ashen white as he shakes his head, "Not this case."

Before Susan can say anything or to inform him that he doesn't get to pick what cases he wants to work on and which ones he doesn't he's already out the door. So much for having the nerves of steel like the other Romano who once worked here. Although who knows what he may have been like when he was younger. A small grin is on Susan's face as she tries to picture a very young Robert Romano running like hell away from a trauma. It probably happened more than once in his first year.

Ethan on the other hand has found his way out the door and into the ambulance bay. The brisk February weather burns his lungs as he tries to slow his breathing down. He can't start panicking now – it may ruin his reputation.

"Reputation," he mutters under his breath. All he's heard about over the last 48 hours or so is how his father had a reputation that no one wanted to divulge in. Even when Dr. Weaver – Chief of Staff saw him she thought that his father had come back for revenge on her in the form of a very young and abled man – he laughed at the thought of this woman believing in such ideas.

Minutes later the cold, nipping air gets to him and he heads back into the lounge – still shaken.

"Hey Red," Frank starts.

"Not now!" he grumbles pushing the lounge door open.

At first the lounge seems quiet – almost too quiet. A safe haven from the world outside those doors – one which Ethan could have easily dealt with, but not a case like that.

Not this early.

The lounge door swings open.

"Crackers work wonders," Susan says sarcastically.

"I'm not queasy."

"Well then what the hell was that about?"

"I'd rather not talk about it."

"Look – I know that you think you have to be a tough guy – but getting sick is understandable on your first trauma. It's just how you deal with it. You either let your emotions get to you or you don't."

"It won't happen again," he mutters quietly, almost embarrassed by what happened.

Susan turns to leave.

"What was my dad like?" Ethan asks softly.

"Truthfully?"

"Yeah."

"A pain in the ass. I didn't know him that well, though."

"But you worked with him during the last months."

"He wasn't the same. Dr. Romano was a bitter man. Bitter at the fact that he was placed in a job in the ER and no one down here was willing to respect him," she pauses, "You know just a year before he ran this hospital. He always had an extremely vicious and wry sense of humor, but during those last days I wouldn't have wanted to have been in his situation either."

"What was he like before the accident?"

"That's something I'd ask Dr. Corday about."

"Dr. Corday?"

"She's a surgeon who worked with your dad for six years."

Ethan stands abruptly, "Well enough with the tears – let's go save lives."

"Now that's the spirit."

Ethan headed back out into the bright ER ready to work and learn. Pushing into the depths of his memory is the reason he ran away from the trauma – the same reason he became a doctor:

His mother's death.

TBC

xxxxx

More to come! Please R&R

Jen


	3. Elizabeth Corday

Title: Ch. 3 Elizabeth Corday

Author: Jen Zoromski

All other information is at the beginning of ch. 1. I'm a busy college student – haha – so updates may be erratic, but I will try my hardest to get at least an update in a week.

Thanks so much for all the reviews. Enjoy!

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_February 13, 2004_

_Surgical Wing, County General Hospital_

_9:54 p.m._

"Jacy just tell him that he will be sore for a few days and that is perfectly normal after this type of procedure," Elizabeth Corday says curtly as she stands next to the circulation area in the surgical wing talking to Jacy who is smirking on the phone.

Jacy repeats what Elizabeth told her and hangs up the phone, smirking.

"Dr. Corday, he was insistent on talking to you."

"I don't see why, I didn't even do the surgery for him and besides a patient who is getting that kind of procedure done must have a wife or a reason for it."

"Maybe it was post-op love."

"Right. Do you know how many love declarations I've gotten in post op from different men and _women_?" Elizabeth points out, vaguely remembering one post op declaration of love. Was that really only a year ago? So much has happened since that time. After working with him for six years she never really understood him until he lost everything that he thought he was. He lost his profession and his reason for living – well except for the contact with her, but she realized it too late to do anything about it. Staring at the haunting, intense picture of him just three months ago at his funeral made her regret not having at least tried to do more.

"Dr. Corday?"

"Hmm?"

Elizabeth turns to see Jacy holding onto the phone once again.

"Tell him to put ice on it."

Jacy laughs and holds out the phone, "It's not a patient. It's one of the new med students doing his ER rotation."

"Why is a med student calling up here? I didn't get paged."

"He seems very insistent."

"Well so did my new found love in the vasectomy patient, but you didn't give me the phone then."

"Dr. Corday is busy at the moment," Jacy replies into the phone. Seconds later she hangs up the phone, "He didn't seem very happy."

"He's a med student. They aren't supposed to be happy once they get introduced to the real world of being a doctor. They won't be happy until their bills are all paid off and they are actually in a specialty that they like."

Elizabeth stops and sees that she has lost Jacy's interest, "It's been a long day. Look at me, I'm spouting off nonsense. I'm going to go and grab my coat and go home to my daughter."

"Have a good night, Dr. Corday."

She walks into her office and looks around. Not too long ago it used to be another man's office. A man she never really understood. Maybe more so how he got to that point than why he acted the way he did. Some days she wanted to say the same kind of snarky comment that he would say to someone else – he just beat her to it.

"I've got to snap out of it," Elizabeth tells herself in her darkened office.

"Talking to yourself, that definitely can't be a good sign," a voice, almost familiar to her sneers.

Elizabeth nearly jumps out of her skin at the sound of that cynical sneering tone. Slowly she turns around and is face to face with an intense pair of brown eyes and a lopsided smirk.

"Dr. Corday, I presume?"

"Who are you?"

"I'm not your vasectomy patient," he replies mockingly.

"You're the med student that was on the phone."

"That would be me indeed."

She looks at him closer. He looks so familiar, that voice, those eyes, that smirk – where has she seen that before?

"Trying to catch flies? I would have thought that you heard the gossip by now."

"What gossip?"

"Oh you know, the usual – so and so is dating so and so; somebody's pregnant; and oh yeah your former boss had a son who just happens to be a new med student here."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't introduce myself," he extends his hand looking at her playfully, "I'm Ethan Romano."

The look on Elizabeth's face is absolutely priceless.

"What can I say, according to my mom, I inherited nearly everything from my father," he replies brushing a hand through his thick auburn curls.

"I think I need to sit down."

"Is it that bad?"

Elizabeth walks over to her desk chair and plops down, unevenly, confused as to what to make of this man that stands before her.

"I'm so confused right now…"

"Confused?"

"Robert never mentioned that he had a son, much less a significant other."

"A long time ago he did."

"What?"

"I'd rather not talk about it."

Trying to regain some control over her emotions and trying to rid herself of the thoughts that maybe this was Robert being sent back to her for a second try and trying to get being a decent human being towards him right. Sure she was fine in the later days, but she still didn't know who he was as a person.

"Dr. Corday?"

"Yes?"

"Heart still pumping, lungs still working?"

"…"

"Because I wouldn't want to have to try and resuscitate you – although the prospect of it is quite appealing and if I did cause your current state, wouldn't it be the proper thing to do?"

"No it certainly would not!"

"Now, now, now Dr. Corday I didn't come up here to put you in a bad mood—"

"What _did_ you come up here for Mr. Romano?"

"I want to start a relationship—"

"Pardon?"

He laughs with a playful look in his eyes, "A working relationship – I'm 25 years old and not stupid – I wouldn't ever have a relationship with someone at work."

"Such a final statement. I said that too, years ago, but my most significant relationships all were from work."

"Interesting…"

"What exactly did you have in mind for a working relationship?" she asks amused that he is such a child in the ways of the world, but also his eyes hold onto a sort of maturity that she can't quite place her finger on.

"I want to learn everything I can about surgery," Ethan pauses letting his guard down for a brief moment, "and my father."

"Robert was…"

He holds up his hand with a slight grimace on his face, "I can't bear the details right now – might give me nightmares."

"I see that sarcasm is an inherited trait," Elizabeth shakes her head.

Ethan smirks with a sad smile and looks Elizabeth over for the first time. In his rare visits with his dad he talked so little about work, but when he did talk about it – he would always talk about a woman at work.

"_I hope someday you get to work with a woman like her – she's amazing."_

"_Sounds like someone has a crush," 19 year old Ethan teases his normally terse and nonexistent father._

"_I admire her skills – "_

"_Right."_

"_I do," he protests like a five year old._

"_Well in all actuality, I would say go for it."_

"_When did you become so smart?"_

_Curtly Ethan replies, "When you weren't around."_

_Robert winces at the comment and looks away from his son._

"_Look, I didn't mean to –" Ethan tries to explain._

"_No it's fine. I should really be going anyways."_

"Ethan?"

"I'm sorry?"

"I asked what attending you're assigned to."

"Dr. Lewis."

"I'll talk to her tomorrow about trying to work out a way that you can get some observation up here before the rest of your class in surgery."

He sincerely looks at her, "Thanks."

"Now if you'll excuse me, I have a daughter waiting at home that I haven't seen in nearly a day and a half."

Ethan accompanies Elizabeth out of her office and walks her to the elevator.

"Are you getting in?"

"Nah, I'm going to look around a bit."

"I'll see you tomorrow then."

"Yeah, tomorrow."

Standing in the middle of the deserted hallway, Ethan is at a loss for words. In the rare occasion when he actually met with his father he would mentally curse this very place for taking away a normal childhood from him.

This place and others like it took from him a father.

And yet somehow it invigorates him.

TBC

XXXXXXXXXX

More to come! Please R&R

Jen


	4. His own man

Title: Ch. 4 "His own man"

Author: Jen Zoromski

Notes: Takes place around Season 10's "Blood Relations"

All other information is in the first chapter.

Enjoy!

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_February 19, 2004_

_Ethan's Apartment_

_4:03 a.m._

"Ethan," a young woman barely whispers to the slumbering red head beside her.

He doesn't respond to her or the constant beeping coming from his pager on the nightstand next to them. The blonde slowly shakes him again. She's pretty, maybe a little older than he is, but not one to have been extremely excited with school, ever.

"Ethan," she whispers again shaking him a bit more forcefully.

A small groan is all that comes through his lips.

"God damn it! Wake up!"

Ethan nearly springs out of his bed, startled at another voice in his room, a feminine voice at that.

"What the hell?"

She rolls her eyes and smirks at him, "You're damn beeper keeps going off!"

Looking at the nightstand he sees the flashing box.

"I missed five messages, why the hell didn't you wake me up?"

"I tried."

"You should have tried harder," Ethan rubs his eyes, trying to focus on the woman in front of him, but for his life he doesn't recognize her.

For Ethan it was always a different woman. Never did he have the consistency of a promising relationship. He didn't want one. Not at that point in his life. After hearing stories of the lost love his parents once shared years before he vowed that if that love could not last then there was absolutely no conceivable place for love in his life.

Nothing would work for him.

"You look confused," the blonde replies feigning pain.

"I'm sorry, I was a little drunk last night –"

She smirks and pulls the sheet around her, "The name's Mandy."

"I'm Ethan—"

"Yeah, I remember."

"Oh," he replies getting out of bed stark naked, not at all concerned with being modest, "Well I hate to cut this morning short, but I am needed at the hospital, if they haven't already failed me for not responding."

"It was fun. Maybe we should do it again sometime," Mandy shrugs.

They both know that there will never be another time. There never was for Ethan. Relationships scared him. They scared him more than anything in his life – dying, losing a patient, not succeeding – it was always the fear of becoming a man who couldn't carry on a relationship that he was committed to. He feared he would become the man he thought his father was.

"_Mom, I'm doing a project in school on families," an 8 year old Ethan, with adorable dimples and freckles, tells his mother triumphantly._

"_I'll help you the best that I can."_

_Ethan scoffs his toe in the ground while looking up at his mother, afraid to ask her the question he has wondered since kindergarten when everyone else would talk about a mysterious man they called 'Daddy.' When he was even younger than that he would ask who those men were with his friends, but she would always shy away from talking about it. She never wanted to._

"_I need information on _him_."_

_His mother grimaces at the thought of having to tell her son about the man who helped to conceive him not even a decade earlier. _

"_You don't have to tell me, Mom," Ethan replies as he places his arms around his mother._

"_I may not be around forever, baby. You need to know about your father," she responds, sadness dripping in her voice. It was that same year that she found out that she was dying._

_Funny how life worked that way._

"_What do you want to know about him?"_

"_Anything."_

"_His name was Robert and we were so much in love…"_

"Ethan, that damn thing is beeping again!"

"I'm leaving," he says as he pulls on a pair of scrubs, "it was nice to meet you."

"Yeah, same here."

_County General Hospital_

_4:47 a.m._

"Mr. Romano, first thing we learn as medical students is what?"Carter inquires, not at all happy with him rolling in nearly an hour after the page. Especially since he only lived a few blocks from the hospital.

"I'm sorry, Dr. Carter – I was in a deep sleep after a very long night," he comments cheekily. Even at a little before five in the morning Ethan is already starting to fire on all cylinders.

"I don't even want to hear about your personal life."

"So why'd you page me?"

"Because I'm down two med students and you start at six anyways."

"You just figured I could come in for a few extra hours?"

"Well it is going to be your job, Mr. Romano, get used to it."

"If this is someone to get back at my dad – ya know what comes around goes around. It really isn't working."

"Maybe I just like to terrorize med students," Carter replies heading for the door.

"You don't do a very good job at it."

"Actually we seem to be down a few people in the ER. I figured you could use some experience at the end of the grave yard shift."

"There's nothing going on."

"Oh it's just the calm before the storm."

Carter exits and Ethan is left at the front desk with not much to do.

Neela approaches him, having seen him around the hospital, but never really talked to him. Since she was a 4th year and he was a 3rd year med student their paths really didn't cross much.

"How long are you on for?"

"Another eight hours or so," Neela replies eyeing this young Romano clone. She doesn't know what to make of him.

"I'm sorry I forgot your name," Ethan counters trying to actually be nice instead of turning on the sarcasm that scares so many other people.

"I'm Neela Rasgotra."

"Ethan Romano."

"I've heard about you."

"Oh I'm sure that the hospital rumor mill just loves to scare everyone about me – saying I've come back for vengeance for my father."

Neela smiles slightly, "I don't believe I've heard those rumors."

Ethan grins at her sheepishly, "I bet you have, you're just too nice to say so."

"You look incredibly like him – younger of course."

"I should hope so."

Jerry puts his hand over the phone and says, "We've got a family of four coming in – mother is in labor, the rest of the family is unresponsive. Possible carbon monoxide poisoning."

"What's the ETA?"

Sirens sound from the ambulance bay.

"That'd be them now."

Neela, Ethan, Morris, Gallant and Abby run out into the ambulance bay met by Carter and Susan who just arrived. It was going to be a very long morning.

XXXXX

_ER Lounge_

_7:08 p.m._

Ethan opens the lounge door absolutely exhausted from a longer than normal day. Looking around the dark lounge, at first, he sees no one.

But in the far corner Neela sits with her head in her hands.

"How's the lungs?"

"Mine or the baby's?"

"Yours. I heard that the little kid is doing just fine."

Neela shakes her head still trying to take in even breathes.

"I don't know if I'm cut out for this. I thought that pediatrics was where I wanted to be, but then last month I was up the NICU and I couldn't handle it then and now I couldn't handle this either."

Ethan sits down next to her on the couch, sincerely touches her shoulder and then shies away, not wanting to get too touchy-feely.

"You want to hear a secret?"

"I don't even know you."

"Oh Ms. Rasgotra it isn't that kind of secret," he smirks, "Even though I'm supposed to have a 'tough exterior' to scare people – which I think is funny for a 3rd year med student like myself, but I would have panicked too."

She looks up at him for the first time since he entered the lounge and saw the sincerity on his face. In the week or two since Ethan had been on his ER rotation, she was the first person to look at him as not Robert Romano's son, but rather as another med student like herself –

Vulnerable and young.

With a heart that even Ethan Romano did not know truly existed in him.

She saw it though.

And it put a small smile on her lips.

He was truly human and not just some man's son.

Ethan was his own man.

TBC

XXXXXXXX

More to come! Please R&R

Jen


	5. Jigsaw Puzzle

Title: Ch. 5 – Jig-saw Puzzle

Author: Jen Zoromski

Disclaimer: All other information is in the first chapter.

A/N: Thanks so much for all the great reviews. Personally, I have no idea what romantic relationship may take place – if any between Ethan and the women characters on ER – only time will tell. Also, sorry for the delay, but finals are soon approaching and I've been extremely busy.

Well enjoy!

XXXXXX

_County General Hospital_

_ER Lobby_

_February 25, 2004_

_10:19 a.m._

"His patient did what?" Ethan inquires staring at the TV screen in front of him.

A large tank rolls it way over parked cars and unmovable street objects.

"Morris's patient stole a tank and is headed to County to finish him off," Frank informs him and anyone else who is listening.

Ethan smirks, in spite of the situation and looks over at Neela who is staring at the TV in front of them. No one can really believe it.

"Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit!" Morris mutters pacing across the lobby, "I need to leave."

"Oh no you don't. We're on lock down until the police get this maniac," Dr. Kerry Weaver barks as she makes her way into the uncannily quiet ER.

"What did he do to his patient?" Ethan whispers to Neela.

"I think he was trying to get him a psych consult."

He looks up at the screen and laughs under his breath, "I wonder why."

Seconds later his pager goes off and he looks down at it – confused. His duty was to the quiet and inactive ER at the moment – who the hell needed him?

"Ethan?"

"It's the OR – I think Dr. Corday wants to see me."

"You're going to miss all the action," Neela tells him taking her gaze off of the television.

"I've seen enough action in my life to know that this will not end well."

"What kind of action would that have been, Mr. Romano?" Neela cheekily inquires. Over the last week or so these two have been sounding boards for one another. Both have been placed in places that they don't feel they entirely belong in. Neela has been trying desperately to find a relationship with her friend and comrade Michael Gallant, while Ethan has been trying to maintain his sanity without the prospect of having to think about any type of relationship.

"Oh, Ms. Rasgotra – if you only knew –" he smirks leaving her with that.

They have the rapport of two close friends who share a multitude of inside jokes and such that only the two of them will ever understand. Maybe it was better that way.

"_I think I'm in love," 16 year old Ethan whispers, almost silently into the dark recesses of the night as his father sits in front of a blazing fire with a glass of wine in hand._

"_What do you want me to do about it, son?" Robert Romano responds coldly as he tries to fight with his inner demons. Ethan was going to leave him – leave him for a long time to go and live with his aunt. They would see each other every once in awhile, but the last month or so they had bonded in such a way that Romano found it cruel that life would once again take his son away from him._

"_I just want your advice."_

"_Don't."_

"_Don't?"_

"_Yes – don't because it hurts so damn much when it's over."_

_Ethan stares at him with questioning eyes, taunting him with the idea that maybe, just maybe he has found a love that will last longer than anything his father ever experienced._

"_I know what you're thinking, Ethan – and it doesn't matter – everything ends."_

_Despite himself Ethan steps in front of his father wearing a well known glare and he challenges, "What made you so bitter towards love? Did you not want what you and Mom had all those years ago? Did you not want me?"_

_Robert, for the first time in a long time didn't know what to say – didn't have any idea on how to respond. _

"_No."_

"_To which one?"_

"_You don't understand—"_

"_What is there to understand?"_

"_We were young and life threw too much at us too quickly."_

"_If you loved her it would have worked."_

_Robert shakes his head sadly and looks gloomily at his son._

"_That's were you're wrong. We loved each other so much that it didn't work. Love didn't pay the bills or help me to find myself."_

"_Find yourself?"_

"_I always wanted to be a doctor. I couldn't do that with a girlfriend and a baby."_

"_So you left us to become a doctor?"_

_Grief and guilt etch themselves freely on the face of Robert Romano as he whispers, "Yes."_

"_Do you regret it?"_

_Without hesitation he responds, "Every day."_

_**OR Lounge**_

_**10:25 a.m.**_

"Dr. Corday, you paged me?"

"Ah Mr. Romano – I haven't seen much of you lately after your proposition to study intensively under me."

"Is that what I was supposed to be doing?" he counters with a sly grin on his face, "Study under you?"

A deep red blush starts to creep – even at 25 this man knows exactly what buttons to push – he, in that respect, is extremely like the man who paraded around the OR for seven years.

"You know exactly what I meant, Mr. Romano – do we need to have a refresher course on where you stand in the scheme of things?"

"Dr. Corday – I think that everything is _quite_ clear."

"Good."

She stands up abruptly and hands him a thick file.

"What's this?"

"The reason I paged you."

He flips through the file and sees the blaring name ROBERT ROMANO gracing the cover of it.

"Are these my father's records?"

"Some of them, yes, but this documents everything that he went through in the last year of his life – his struggles and finally his undoing. Your father was a hurt man and I know that you knew him vaguely, but you never really did know him did you?"

"On occasion he would open up, but the last ten years or so I've probably seen him a dozen times or so."

"But you knew him outside of work – you saw the humanity."

Ethan snorts, "Some days I don't know if I'd call that humanity."

"Towards the end of his life, I saw a different side of him – a vulnerability that I would have never thought existed in a man like him – I always wondered where that came from."

He looks through the file folder, ignoring the deep digging into the recesses of something that he really didn't want to go into at the moment. From his mother he always heard that his aloofness was much like that of his father – especially when he left to go and become a doctor. But all of those stories where told to the mind of a child under the age of ten. She wrote down a lot of what happened in the life of both her and Robert, but it never really hit on the big issues – and the digging only went so far when he confronted his father.

It was like a big jig-saw puzzle with half of the pieces missing.

"Ethan?"

"Yes?"

"I asked if you wanted to make copies of these?"

"Of course."

"Right – I'll have Jacy do that for you."

"Any other reason you wanted me up here Dr. Corday – I give a mean back massage," he offers trying to make her feel uncomfortable.

"If I didn't have a fascinating heart reconstruction to scrub infor – I'd take you up on that offer – maybe another time," Elizabeth smirks leaving Ethan with his mouth still agape.

Elizabeth Corday could deal it just as much as he could – and at that moment he understood why his father talked so fondly of a certain British woman at the hospital.

She was in every way his equal.

A strong woman that could stand up to the steely exterior of Robert Romano.

A woman that could break down walls in both men – a generation apart.

She, too, is like a jig-saw puzzle with half of the pieces missing – and it intrigued Ethan to no end.

What exactly had he gotten himself into in asking for Dr. Corday's help on understanding his father?

Staring at the closed door the curly red-head had just exited from he shook his head.

"This could definitely be interesting."

And he followed her out the door.

TBC

XXXXX

More to come! Please R&R

Jen


	6. Rescue Me

Title: "Rescue Me"

Author: Jen Zoromski

All other information is in the first chapter.

Author's Note: Wow – it has been quite sometime since I've looked at this story, but with finals and moving back home, I've hardly had the time. Sorry about the delay. Hope you all enjoy the next chapter!

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_County General Hospital_

_OR Lounge_

_March 17, 2004_

_10:17 p.m._

Medical books in hand, Ethan spent his first St. Patrick's Day in years not out partying half of his heritage up, but rather extremely engrossed in the brain and spinal cord among other areas. It was truly not like him to miss out on a night of booze and women who were impressed by this Irish red hair and charming dark eyes. Just recently though, he had become increasingly obsessed and possessed by the specialty that stole his own father away from him – surgery and it intrigued him greatly.

And even more intriguing than just the field of surgery was the atmosphere which he had recently been studying in. Hours earlier he scrubbed in to actually stand in the operating room and watched in awe as Elizabeth Corday set into motion the beating of a new heart for a 2 day old infant.

He wanted that power.

He wanted to play God.

"_Robert -- your Daddy -- is a surgeon," his mother tells the eager 8 year old Ethan. He was finally getting a story out of her. He didn't care what one, just as long as it was about his father._

"_What does he do?"_

"_He's a doctor Ethan – he saves people that no one else can save."_

_Ethan crosses his arms over his chest and glares up at his mother matter-of-factly. In that elementary mind he conceived the notion that being a doctor is what took his father away from him. The mysterious places called hospitals and clinics were the sole reason he never got to experience a normal childhood with a father._

"_I don't want to be a doctor, ever."_

"_Honey…"_

"_No, Mom – he gets to save people, but what about me?"_

"_He loves you very much."_

"_No he doesn't."_

_At even 8 years of age, the Romano temperament was more profound than ever. Even during his 2nd year in college Ethan was convinced that he never wanted to be like his father, but the nagging thoughts he possessed from the day he lost his mother were always with him. In the back of his mind he did want to be a doctor. It became the only common thread that held the two hurting Romano men together -- a need to be a doctor. _

"Aren't you supposed to be out with all of your hoodlums drinking away the holiday?" a British accent breaks his reverie.

Ethan looks up to see the smirking expression of a tired Elizabeth Corday.

"What's your excuse for not going out and partying up the town?" Ethan counters.

"6 hours of heart surgery on an infant after a 30 hour work day. Try to beat that."

"I'd rather not."

She plops down on the couch, opposite from him, stretching out the kinks in her back and neck.

"I'm dead tired."

"Need some rescue breathing?"

"Are you offering?" Elizabeth replies cheekily as she spreads herself out further on the couch, not wanting to take the lonely trek home.

Ethan laughs and goes back to his reading. In each other's presence they are actually quite comfortable. He looks over at her nearly sleeping form and grins inwardly while he pokes her foot that has neared in his direction.

"Hey, this is my couch more than it is yours," Elizabeth responds tiredly through still closed eyes.

"I hear that you own it in more ways than one."

"I would never do that on this couch," she protests weakly.

"Never?"

"Okay, I won't say never, but still – that's disgusting."

"Haven't tried it with your two latest men?"

She opens her eyes and smirks at him, "Jealous?"

"Of what having two men? First of all I don't like men, second of all do you really think I go home to a cold bed every night?"

"Ethan, this is where that too much information clause comes in. I don't want to hear about your life and you don't want to hear about mine."

"I don't remember ever signing a clause and I really would like to hear about your personal life – every last detail."

Elizabeth sits up on the couch and glares at him, "You do realize that is inappropriate."

"What?"

"I'm your attending."

"Technically, you're not."

Defenseless against his prodding front she more or less collapses her shoulders in a sign of defeat. Staring at the man in front of her, she doesn't see a 25 year old 3rd year med student. She sees something different. His dark eyes are the window to his soul and it seems to be that he really has been through a lot in those years. Maybe more than his 25 years would have permitted. He's aged beyond his years.

But it's not a good aging – only one that was brought about by the negligence of a distant father and the absence of any motherly figure beyond the age of 8.

In that respect they were nearly the same.

A smirk dances across his lips as he somehow moved closer to her on the couch.

"I'm your advising attending up here in the O.R. That makes me your attending."

"Dr. Lewis is my attending," Ethan counters.

Maybe it was the dark room or the idea that both of them were spending a nationally known drinking holiday completely sober and out of the glaring lights of partying that they somehow moved closer to one another.

It isn't a good idea.

Nothing ever really is in this respect.

"Want to go for the hat trick?" he whispers grinning as he moves closer to her. Heat from their bodies radiates through the thin material of scrubs and the misty scent mixed of sweat, soap, and anticipation. They are so close to one another that both hold their breaths.

Under the haunting power of arousal and anticipation, they are drawn to one another.

Ethan cups the back of her head and gently pulls her towards him. Rationality teeters on the edge of insanity as he gently draws her face to his.

Lips brush for a brief second and then Elizabeth is pulling away quickly – rationality kicked in before she went into a forbidden territory comprised of past regret and future heartache.

"I'm…I…have to go," she replies getting up from the couch, flushed and disbelieving that _that_ almost happened.

She quickly gathers her belongings and opens the lounge door, not even looking back at Ethan who sits stunned or in disbelief or something to that effect – completely unsure of what almost transpired.

Gaining his bearings he follows her out into the empty hall.

"Dr. Corday—" he hollers after her.

She doesn't stop.

"Lizzie!"

Upon hearing Robert's pet name for her – something that he only called her she stops dead in her tracks. In some ways it is all a sense of déjà vu. It was only a year ago that she was running away from Robert Romano because of feelings she didn't understand.

And now she was running from his son –

For the same reason.

And it scared her.

Turning back to him, her cheeks still flushed a dark scarlet, her eyes wild with unchecked feelings of desire and the bearings of self control, she doesn't know what to think.

"I'm sorry. I crossed the line," Ethan pauses keeping his distance from her as he curses the exact reason as to why he isn't out getting smashed, "It won't happen again."

Putting on a 'strong' face Elizabeth tries her best to glare at him, to make herself angrier, or to just look meaner, "It better not."

But the edged sword she tried to deject at him was nothing but a deflated threat.

She is fifteen years his senior, his attending (or one of them) and she has other men lined up at the door, but she can't fathom why she is drawn to this man.

Ethan nods his head in agreement and turns to leave.

Abruptly, he stops, "On second thought—" He rushes back to her captures her forcefully in his arms and lands a passionate kiss on her lips that should never have been shared between the two.

Breathlessly they pull apart and he smirks at her, "I'm sorry, I couldn't resist."

In Romano-esque style he winks at her and saunters away down the hall, leaving Elizabeth Corday breathless and in serious need of a drink.

TBC

XXXXX

More to come! Please R&R

Jen


	7. Challenge

Title: "Challenge"

Author: Jen Zoromski

All info is in the first chapter.

Author's Note: Loosely around the time of season 10's "The Student." Thanks for all the feedback. Enjoy the next chapter!

XXXX

_April 1, 2004_

_County General Hospital_

_4:14 p.m._

"I can't believe that Weaver said you were too abrasive in the trauma room," Abby says to Ethan stretching out on the couch as Neela and Ethan sit opposite of her in the lounge taking a breather.

"At least you didn't have Carter coming after you to be more proactive," Neela counters.

Ethan smirks, "Did it work?"

"Not really," Neela replies sheepishly.

"You're doing just fine Neela. I think we'll all be fine," he finishes.

It had been two weeks since 'the kiss' and Dr. Corday had been avoiding him like the plague. He figured she would. Although she seemed to try and avoid him, they would end up in the strangest places together and alone. After hurried 'hellos' or an attempt at a normal conversation she would become flustered and claim that she was needed somewhere else in the hospital.

"I heard Corday was even in there giving her opinions on all the med students," Abby continues.

"What was she doing in there?" Ethan questions trying not to seem too interested.

"I'm figuring since you took her on as one of your 'advisors' or mentors or whatever that she was in there commenting on your performance," Abby explains.

"My performance, eh?"

"Ethan that is dangerous territory that you tread on – besides doesn't she have a few men she's been dating?" Neela asks.

"I wouldn't know, she's been avoiding me lately –"

"What did you do to her?" Abby inquires.

Ethan stands up abruptly, "This chat was great – hope we have gossip hour again, real soon."

"Hold on just a minute! I tell you all my secrets," Neela pouts like a five year old.

"You liar – you never told me how much you liked the enigmatic Dr. Gallant."

Neela stares at him a little flustered, "How –"

"Body language – it's all in the body language. Maybe you should be a bit more proactive in that department.

He smirks and disappears out the door as Abby stifles a giggle.

Neela glares at her with a piercing look that could cut through just about anyone.

"What – He's right, you know."

_Surgical Floor_

_4:25 p.m._

"Jacy, would you happen to know where Dr. Corday is?" Ethan questions looking around the nearly deserted floor.

"I believe she is in surgery."

"Do you happen to know when she'll be out?"

"Probably another half an hour or so."

"Thanks," he responds, disappointed and starts to walk away.

"You should go watch – it is a quite fascinating procedure that she's performing."

He grins at the nurse and heads for the observation room. Once inside he is surprised to see a few stray surgeons studying paperwork and glancing down every once in awhile at what is going on in the surgery. No one seems at all fascinated by what is being performed. They've probably seen this done many times in their lives, but to Ethan it is all extremely interesting.

Leaning in to get a better look, he sees Elizabeth's delicate hands dance over the patient as she makes the surgery look almost effortless.

"Wow," he breathes, not sure if he was memorized by Elizabeth or by the patient's exposed chest cavity.

"_You'll never understand, son," Robert Romano bites as his 20 year old son glares at him with an identical look athat he too has possessed._

"_What won't I understand?"_

"_The draw of surgery and the absolute adrenaline that accompanies the idea of knowing that you have the power to save someone's life – you'll never understand it. Not studying history."_

_This is the moment he's been waiting for. He swallows and then looks into the angry eyes of his father. Just minutes earlier Ethan had more or less berated him for the profession of saving lives. It was a slip up – a barb that he hadn't meant to throw at his father, but he did. _

_And it unnerved Robert that his own son could get him this angry. Not only that, but it scared Ethan that he possessed that immense kind of power._

_Robert puts his head down in defeat and mutters, "I'm sorry – I know how much you enjoy history. I shouldn't tell you what to do – you're an adult." He pauses looking up at his son, "It's been a long day and my ego hurts – bruised by none other than my favorite colleague."_

"_Dad, I'm changing my major," Ethan counters, quietly._

_He studies his son, intently trying to figure out what exactly his only son was trying to tell him._

"_Biology."_

"_Are you trying to tell me something, Ethan? Is this one of those moments in a father's life where I get to swell with pride and know that my eldest and only son is going to follow in my footsteps?"_

"_When you put it like that it makes me want to reconsider."_

_Robert pulls his son in for an embrace – shocking both Ethan and himself._

"_I know I don't tell you enough – but I'm proud of you – whatever you decide to do."_

"_You could have fooled me," retorts Ethan._

"_I fool a lot of people, but it's oh so much fun," he answers swallowing a lump in his throat. Perhaps, he was alluding to his emotions for a certain colleague of his and his uncanny way of pushing people away._

"Ethan what are you doing up here?" a British voice breaks his reverie.

"Are you done avoiding me?" he bites without looking at her. He instead looks down at the now empty and dark operating room. Wrapped up in his thoughts, he completely blocked out the fact that the surgery is over and anyone who was in the observation room is now gone.

"I wasn't avoiding you," Elizabeth says weakly as she sits down next to him, still wearing her soiled scrubs and in desperate need of a shower. Curly locks are flat from hours pressed beneath a scrub hat and her eyes look tired and unready to deal with the situation at hand.

Ethan laughs under his breath and finally looks at her, "Tell me another – you're quite good."

"I've had a lot to think about and that just threw a huge monkey wrench into my plans."

"Since when did you plan out your entire life?"

"When my husband died and I was left to care for our child – anything I get myself involved in will affect my daughter," she bites her lip trying to keep from crying. Even though her marriage to Mark was something of a complex and unraveling mess towards the end, she did love him at one point and they did have Ella. Out of the blue some days, she would be struck with a sadness that made her realize just how hopeless a woman approaching her 41st birthday with a nearly three year old daughter was in the dating world. She didn't like to be alone – she never did.

Staring at the intelligent man in front of her with his dark and brooding eyes, holding onto the same fear of being alone startles her. At his age, how could he fear such a fate? But she didn't realize that in Ethan's life he never reached for those relationships because he feared the same fate as his own parents: unwilling to give up something for the other and regretting it for the rest of his life.

"Look, Elizabeth – I'm sorry –"

"Don't – I don't need any more sympathy."

"What do you need?"

After pondering it for a moment she looks at him guiltily, "I don't know," she lies.

"Everyone knows what they need."

Looking at her now bowed head, a strange pang constricts his chest and makes him take in a deep breath. Trying to cover for the brief moment of weakness, he smirks and asks darkly, "Better yet, what do you want?"

Glancingat Ethan she is struck with a sudden urge to capture his lips with her own and share the same passionate kiss they experienced two weeks ago, but another part of her is telling her to run like hell.

Ethan starts to lean in, nearly in a trance by Elizabeth. She closes her eyes and leans her head slightly to the right waiting for his lips to land on hers. They brush ever so slightly against one another before an annoying beeping sound interrupts.

"Don't look at it – maybe if we don't see it then we can claim that we didn't get it."

Elizabeth shakes her head and looks down at the beeper "ER 911"

"Looks bad."

"I haven't gotten one yet – can't be too bad."

As if on cue, his pager goes off. Groaning he looks at his pager and then back to Elizabeth, "Damn ER urchins."

"Aren't you one of them?" Elizabeth inquires already standing up and straightening out her already disheveled appearance from 6 hours of surgery.

"Not for long if I can help it."

She laughs and heads for the door.

But impulsively stops with Ethan running into her due to his close proximity of following her out the door.

Contact makes them both catch their breath and Elizabeth plants her lips firmly on his, deepening the kiss into a passionate one filled with all the desire, pain, and angst of the past and present.

Too quickly she is pulling away with a glint in her eye.

"Don't want the ER to send a search party out for us," Elizabeth says as she walks out the door leaving Ethan completely awe-struck.

A small glimmer of a smirk appears on his face as he watches her go out the door. She confused him immensely, but he liked a challenge.

And against his better judgment this challenge was starting to consume his thoughts.

And fill his loneliness.

TBC

XXXX

More to come!

Please R&R

Jen


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